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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Thursday, December 08, 2005
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Fortieth Anniversary of the Closing of Vatican II The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council was concluded forty years ago today, December 8, 1965. Here are some collections of the conciliar documents:
Here follows In Spiritu Sancto, the apostolic brief for the closing of the council. + + + + + The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, assembled in the Holy Spirit and under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we have declared Mother of the Church, and of St. Joseph, her glorious spouse, and of the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, must be numbered without doubt among the greatest events of the Church. In fact it was the largest in the number of Fathers who came to the seat of Peter from every part of the world, even from those places where the hierarchy has been very recently established. It was the richest because of the questions which for four sessions have been discussed carefully and profoundly. And last of all it was the most opportune, because, bearing in mind the necessities of the present day, above all it sought to meet the pastoral needs and, nourishing the flame of charity, it has made a great effort to reach not only the Christians still separated from communion with the Holy See, but also the whole human family. At last all which regards the holy ecumenical council has, with the help of God, been accomplished and all the constitutions, decrees, declarations and votes have been approved by the deliberation of the synod and promulgated by us. Therefore we decided to close for all intents and purposes, with our apostolic authority, this same ecumenical council called by our predecessor, Pope John XXIII, which opened October 11, 1962, and which was continued by us after his death. We decided moreover that all that has been established synodally is to be religiously observed by all the faithful, for the glory of God and the dignity of the Church and for the tranquillity and peace of all men. We have approved and established these things, decreeing that the present letters are and remain stable and valid, and are to have legal effectiveness, so that they be disseminated and obtain full and complete effect, and so that they may be fully convalidated by those whom they concern or may concern now and in the future; and so that, as it be judged and described, all efforts contrary to these things by whomever or whatever authority, knowingly or in ignorance be invalid and worthless from now on. Given in Rome at St. Peter's, under the ring of the fisherman, Dec. 8, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the year 1965, the third year of our pontificate. + + + + + Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/08/05 10:37:27 PM |
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Alpizarization of Domestic War on Terrorism Coming? As you have probably heard already, one Rigoberto Alpizar was killed yesterday by air marshals after claiming to have had a bomb. It seems now that he was mentally disturbed. I should think, from what I know of the situation, that the air marshals really had no other choice. I should also think that some folks will disagree with that assessment. Here's a speculation from your Humble, Faithful Blogster: the probablity of real terrorists thinking about adopting a Fake Mental Illness tactic will go up if, and proportional to, the criticism that the air marshals get. If the air marshal(s), the airline, and/or the airport involved get sued by Alpizar's family, the probability will go to 1. Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/08/05 08:32:04 AM |
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Streisand the Unconscious The blogosphere is abuzz over the full text of Barbra Streisand's letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times, available now at her website (italics in original). + + + + + Posted on November 28, 2005 This is the original letter I wrote to the LA Times regarding their firing of Robert Scheer: November 18, 2005
Andres Martinez Dear Mr. Martinez, This letter is to inform you that I am canceling my subscription to the LA Times, and here is the reason why: The greater Southern California community is one that not only proudly embraces its diversity but demands it. Your publisher's decision to fire Robert Scheer is a great disservice to the spirit of our community. I'm almost embarrassed for you in seeing the LA Times being referred to as the "Chicago LA Times" on the myriad of internet sites I've visited in the last few days. It seems, however, an aptly designated epithet, representing the feeling among many of your readers that your new leadership, especially that of Jeff Johnson, is entirely out of touch with them and their desire to be exposed to views that stretch them beyond their own paradigms. So although the number of contributors to your op-ed pages may have increased, in firing Robert Sheer and putting Jonah Goldberg in his place, the gamut of voices has undeniably been diluted, and I suspect this may ultimately decrease the number of readers of those same pages. In light of the obvious step away from the principals of journalistic integrity, which would dictate that journalists be journalists, editors be editors and accountants be accountants, I am now forced to carefully reconsider which sources can be trusted to provide me with accurate, unbiased news and forthright opinions. Your new columnist, Jonah Goldberg, will not be one of those sources. Robert Scheer's column, with its often singular voice of dissent and groundbreaking expositional content, has been among the most notable features that have sustained my interest in subscribing to the LA Times for many years now. Apparently, previous leadership at the LA Times had no trouble recognizing Mr. Scheer's journalistic prowess in that they nominated him for the Pulitzer Prize. My greatest fear is that the underlying reason for Mr. Scheer's termination is part of a larger trend toward the corporatization of our media, a trend that we, as American citizens, must fervently battle for the sake of our swiftly diminishing free press. Sincerely, Barbra Streisand + + + + + Please, Faithful Reader, if I ever embarrass myself like that, slap me upside the head. (If it's too late... well... never mind.) B.S. seems to be living in a profound unconsciousness; by which I mean, she is clueless as to what kind of person she really is, and she's oblivious to what's really happening around her. By any reasonable measure, removing Robert Scheer from the op-ed page at LAT, and adding Jonah Goldberg, will reward their left-coast readership's "desire to be exposed to views that stretch them beyond their own paradigms". Shouldn't B.S. be applauding? As to the "corporatization of our media" — hasn't B.S. gotten fabulously wealthy and famous from the corporations in media that produced & distributed her albums & movies? Finally, "our free press", far from "swiftly diminishing", is actually expanding apace. Long gone are the days when Walter Cronkite, acting alone, could change the course of a war with an early-evening, off-the-cuff pronouncement. The rise of talk radio, conservative cable news, and the Internet, has provided outlets for points of view quite at odds with those who share the paradigms of B.S. It may very well be that a diagnosis of unconsciousness is far too generous. The last thing (really, the last thing) B.S. wants is anything that challenges her paradigms. That LAT's readership will be getting more diversity is what she is really objecting to, not a dilution of the "gamut of voices" presented therein. Indeed, if she wants "forthright opinions", Goldberg ought to be just who she wants to read. She expresses a desire for "accurate, unbiased news"; what she really wants is news carefully selected and slanted to fit her paradigms — which is evidenced by the very cause of, and nature of, her letter. She says she worries about "our swiftly diminishing free press"; what she really fears is the final and complete collapse of mainstream media's monopoly on the dissemination of information and opinion. Psychosis might be a better diagnostic fit. Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/08/05 07:03:40 AM |
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Wikiwatch (Thanks, Esquire.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/08/05 06:52:13 AM |
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John Leo's Blog (Thanks, Anchoress.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/08/05 06:43:03 AM |
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Readworthies XXVII A handful of interesting, informative, and insightful articles. News, editorials, columns, essays, et al. Blanco's office scrambled to spin Katrina: E-mails detail effort to ensure feds took blame for slow response by Jan Moller @The Times-Picayune (ht): Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the Bush administration were locked in a pitched political battle to shape public opinion about the response to Hurricane Katrina at the same time they were trying to manage the rescue operation, documents released late Friday by the governor's office show. E-mails turned over by the state to the congressional committees investigating the hurricane response show that the governor's senior staff was deeply involved in trying to preserve the governor's political standing and make sure that the White House was blamed for the slow pace of the initial response.... Is Religion Evil? Secularism's Pride and Irrational Prejudice by Carl E. Olson @ Igatius Insight (ht): The common wisdom in many circles (most located in certain cities on the East and Left Coasts) is that religion, in general, is a bad thing, and that in the hands of "fundamentalists," the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and ultra-super-radical-Islamic terrorists, it is inevitably evil. Eliminating religion, it is then suggested or even openly argued, is a sure way to rid the world of evil. The term "religion," it should be noted, almost always refers to Christianity (or a form of pseudo-Christianity) and then, in some cases, to Islam.... For the Love of Narnia by Michael Nelson @ The Chronicle Review (ht): The strategy for marketing the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which will open across the country on December 9, resembles nothing so much as the strategy used to re-elect George W. Bush as president in 2004: Pursue mainstream voters, er, viewers in widely broadcast ads that stress martial valor and family values, and target Christian evangelicals with overtly religious appeals church by church, radio station by radio station. It's a strategy that appears to be working, at least so far. While Newsweek, which was given an exclusive look at the rough cut of the movie, says that Lion is "only as Christian as you want it to be," Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, describes it as a "tool that many may find effective in communicating the message of Jesus to those who may not respond to other presentations." But it's not a strategy that Philip Pullman will allow to succeed without a fight. Pullman is the author of His Dark Materials, a three-volume children's book series that has won popular and critical acclaim rivaling that of the half-century-old, seven-book The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, of which The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first volume. In articles, interviews, and speeches, Pullman has described The Chronicles not just as "propaganda in the cause of the religion [Lewis] believed in," but also as guilty of advancing views such as, "Death is better than life; boys are better than girls; light-colored people are better than dark-colored people; and so on." And those are just Pullman's G-rated charges. He also has blasted The Chronicles in public forums as "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I've ever read," "propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology," "blatantly racist," "monumentally disparaging of girls and women," and marked by a "sadomasochistic relish for violence." If Pullman is right, not only should mainstream moviegoers stay away from Lion, so should evangelical Christians. "The highest virtue, we have on the authority of the New Testament itself," the avowedly atheistic Pullman said in a recent interview about the movie, "is love, and yet you find not a trace of that in the books." But is Pullman right?... The Unsteady Path of Constitutional Democracy: Considering the Middle Eastern Moment from the Perspective of 18th Century America by Justin Paulette @ Intellectual Conservative (ht): At every step toward democratization in the Middle East and Central Asia, skeptics have claimed that the imperfections of the process, the factious contentions among the population, and the narrowness of the democratic victories portend the inevitable failure of the entire enterprise. The nascent Iraqi republic, for example, has endured Sunni boycotts, fiercely competing regional cabals (based largely on religion) and all of the ills and burdens associated with democratic governance the world over. Now, in the wake of a new Iraqi constitution, as well as elections in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Lebanon, perhaps a moment of self-reflection should temper the next volley of doomsday predictions. It would constitute a massive distortion of history to claim that the obstacles presently suffered in the Middle East must necessarily foreshadow the futility of the democratic movement at hand. Such cynicism is particularly unfounded if the condemnation of Middle Eastern fortunes is based upon a claim that those people do not benefit from the favorable winds which ushered in America’s constitutional democracy. The U.S. Constitution was an object of deep mistrust, charged with scandalous power-mongering and proving an extraordinarily hard sell at the time of its eventual adoption. Were a foreign viewer to witness the debacle of American democratization and constitution-building during the late 18th century, surely our fate would have seemed no less imperiled and worthy of derision than the efforts now underway in the Middle East.... The Donner Party's Over by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson @ Urban Legends Reference Pages: Claim: Two of Santa's reindeer were originally named 'Dunder' and 'Blixem,' not 'Donner' and 'Blitzen.' Status: True.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/08/05 06:30:07 AM |
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"Catholic Carnival for December 6th, 2005" This week's Catholic Carnival is at HerbEly. The Blog from the Core does not necessarily endorse every entry in the weekly Catholic Carnival. Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/08/05 06:23:58 AM |
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